Yang felt the shot go through her entire body. Like a coil, sprung forward for the first time after quite some time left tense. With a flash of lightning across her body, her aura depleted into the red, both exhausting and exhilarating her all at once. Her back hit the wall with a sharp crack! accompanied by the tinkling sound of breaking glass. Her arm ripped open, a livewire of pain and the warmth of blood pooling forth like hot lava.
Distantly she heard her sister's high pitched squeal in alarm as red droplets hit the training mats. For a long moment she was too winded to even try to reach out. Fog filled her brain momentarily, making her woozy.
"Whoa," she muttered, swaying slightly. She lifted her injured arm to her head, pinching her temple with her thumb and middle finger. That definitely helped.
A flash of white in front of her eyes had her concerned (was she passing out?), but no. Weiss's hair came into focus. The concerned Heiress was kneeling in front of her, looking into her eyes. It took a long moment for Yang to realize she was talking.
All at once Weiss's voice came into sharp focus. "- crazy you could have given her a concussion!"
"I didn't mean to!" Ruby's shrill tones came from not far away. Yang wanted to look around to find her, but didn't want to turn her head to much right then. "She's the one who came at me full force!"
Weiss shot a dirty look over her shoulder, presumably to where Ruby was out of view. "We're training, you dunce! Of course she came at you!"
Ruby's voice took on a tone of guilt. "She didn't have to come full on with little aura like that!"
"It's Yang," Weiss sniffed. "Honestly Ruby, what did you expect?"
"Guys, I'm fine," Yang interrupted, doing a quick self-assessment just to be sure. She sure felt fine. Just a bump to the head and cut (burning burning) on her right arm. Weiss's gaze snapped back to her and away from her sister, which was probably a good thing because those two could fight for hours if given the chance. Right now, Yang really didn't want to hear it.
"You're bleeding," Weiss contradicted, indicating the small puddle formed on the ground.
"I said I'm fine!" Yang snapped, shaking out her mane of hair. She rose to her feet (delicately though. She didn't want to fall over and prove Weiss right again). "And this cut? It's nothing."
"You should probably get it looked at," suggested the mellow voice of her partner. Yang glanced over to where Blake was standing, arms crossed and leaning against one leg in a very typical Blake-way. If anyone else was suggesting it, Yang would gladly beat them down either verbally or with her fists. But the concerned look in her friend's amber eyes had her faltering for just a second.
Too stubborn to give in, even if it was Blake, Yang decided to compromise. "Maybe later."
"Maybe you should go now," Ruby submitted awkwardly, her fingers rubbing long stripes across the other arm. She looked both nervous to be speaking up and genuinely concerned for Yang's wellbeing, and Yang felt a flush of warmth for her sister. The young little tyrant hadn't meant to hurt her, everyone knew that, but she still looked guilty as a thief about to be stoned to death.
"Ruby, I'm fine, really."
Her sister stamped her foot against the ground (like the child she still was), a flash of the good old family stubbornness in her silver eyes. "No! I'm the team leader. I say you go now."
Another pang of affection. Ruby looked like a kitten pretending to be a lion whenever she got angry. Between the two of them, there was no doubt that Yang was the better fighter. She'd practically raised the little red-hooded girl before her. But Ruby was team leader, and the worry in her eyes put Yang's fighting blood at ease.
Besides. She was hurt. It couldn't be bad to get checked, could it?
"Fine," she conceded shortly. "I'll go to the medical wing. Are you happy?"
"Whatever," Weiss responded stiffly. Yang wasn't fooled. Her face had brightened considerably.
The small gang gathered their stuff together. It was a more messy affair than usual given Yang's freely bleeding arm. Before long (seriously almost no time at all to Yang) there was a trail of blood following her wherever she went. In fact, she decided she did want to be looked at. At first she hadn't thought the cut was that deep, but the blood wasn't stopping and the pain was getting pretty intense.
Blake pressed a towel to her arm. "Here," she murmured quietly. Yang rolled her eyes and muttered a quick "pu-lease", but gratefully took it anyway. For a second that felt like forever to her, their fingers brushed. An electric shock ran through her. Blake's fingers were always so cold (and her arm felt like it was on fire), but in that instant she could have been a lightning bolt.
"Thanks," she said breathlessly, holding the now red towel up in a gesture of gratitude. Blake smiled back shyly but averted her eyes just the same.
Once they had all of their things gathered, they began making their way towards the exit. It was closing in on dinner time, and the caf was in the other direction from the medical center. Yang briefly considered going to dinner with her friends, but ultimately decided against it. She was slightly dizzy, her arm felt like it was boiling off, and she would only start to feel better once it had been treated. So she was mildly surprised when her group started following her, heading in the direction opposite of the cafeteria (and the delicious smells coming from that general direction).
"Uh guys, where are you going?" she asked lightly, trying to keep her voice steady against the pounding fog forming in her brain.
"We're walking you to the health center," Ruby supplied helpfully. There was a strange glint to her eyes that Yang was surprised to see. Was that mistrust?
"I know where the health center is. I'm perfectly capable of getting myself there." Despite her best efforts, she didn't sound like it was some joke (like she planned). Instead she sounded almost offended.
Weiss rolled her eyes. She actually rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, you think we're gonna let you walk yourself there after what happened last time?"
Last time? Yang's brain struggled to remember until it clicked. "Oh."
"Right," Ruby said.
She'd broken her wrist against Nora's hammer. After promising them she'd get it looked at, she went straight to bed and let her aura heal her up. What a long and painful night that had been.
"Well look, I'm going okay. You guys can't skip dinner." Ruby and Weiss exchanged a glance and Yang had found her trump card. "Go on," she said, waving them away, or as best she could with her arm wrapped like it was. "I'll be fine."
With a shrug, the two of them began marching back the way they'd came, towards the cafeteria. Triumph welled in her stomach for all of two seconds before she realized who had not gone with them. Slowly, she turned back to her partner, keeping her eyes from looking directly at her.
"Blake, don't you want dinner?"
"I have some food back at the room," her partner answered quietly. Yang couldn't always tell, but she thought the Faunus girl sounded just as nervous as she felt. "Besides," she continued with something that sounded like a smirk. "You look like you're not gonna make it to the health center at this point."
Yang grumbled non-decrepitly. While she was not one to admit weakness ever she was honestly glad for the company. So she didn't complain.
Endless thoughts ran through her head. Everything she ever wanted to say came crashing down over her, fogging her brain even more (what was wrong with her arm? why did it hurt so badly?). She wanted to ask Blake so many questions: Why was she really walking her along? Just where did she keep her hidden food in the dorm? Did she feel the electricity between them too?
She was so busy concentrating on her thoughts that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. This distraction cost her. Her foot caught on a step up and she stumbled spectacularly. Blake's firm, strong grip caught her, holding her upright.
Which brought their faces rather close together. Yang gulped, feeling the air compressed out of her as if she'd been kicked. Her arm burned against Blake's cold fingers.
"Blake," she breathed, blinking under heavy lidded eyes. This was her chance to test the waters per say. Okay, maybe with an arm gushing blood wasn't the best time. But it was a chance, and damn she wasn't going to miss it.
She brought her arm up to brush Blake's hair out of her face. Only her arm wouldn't cooperate. The cold from Blake's fingers had spread, numbing her. In fact, she couldn't feel her arm at all. She rolled her shoulders and lifted her arm, eyes popping and jaw dropping as she realized it was gone. Gone. Nothing but a stump remained.
"Blake!" she yelled in panic, looking for her friend but finding her gone too. "Blake!"
Panic overwhelmed her, causing her to thrash wildly. Her blankets wrapped around her legs, pinning them and her eyes flashed wide open. The room was dark. She rolled straight off the bed, landing heavily against the floor.
The pain of the fall brought her back to reality sharply. Yang pulled the trash can next to the bed towards her and threw up violently into it. She couldn't breathe, even when she stopped. There was no air in her lungs. The oxygen was gone. Her arm was gone. Her sister was gone. Her partner was gone.
Carefully, shakily, she pulled herself to her feet. On jelly legs, she ghosted to the vanity against the wall, staring at her reflection. Light from the broken moon shown through the window by her bed, illuminating her face in the mirror.
Her broken face, her beaten body.
She breathed as deeply as she could. In times like this, her father would have made her count to ten and back, try to get her back to reality slowly. But he wasn't here tonight. He was searching for Ruby (Yang wasn't sure if she wanted him to find her or not), and he was not here and she had no one.
Her father was gone. Ruby was gone. The school was destroyed. Weiss was in Atlas. Pyrrha and Penny were dead.
And Blake had left her.
Her violet eyes lingered on her missing limb (why, why was it still burning, even if it was gone too?). She couldn't quite meet her own gaze in the light of the broken moon. What would she see there? What would she find?
Yang didn't have to stretch her imagination far to figure out that answer. What would she see when she looked in the mirror? She'd see a broken shell of a broken girl, with a very broken heart.